Antarctic Expedition to Plant 'Thousands of Trees' to Off Set Carbon Footprint of Rescue

Members of the Antarctic expedition trapped in the regions icy tundra have pledged to plant “thousands” of trees to “cover” the carbon footprint resulting from their rescue. The Russian ship Akademik Shokalskiy became lodged in ice on Christmas Eve during a research study on global warming.

Debate has heated up, no pun intended, over exactly how many trees will need to be planted to offset the rescue effort’s “damage.”

The expedition had pledged to plant about 800 kauri trees in Northland to cover its carbon footprint. Environmentalists believe planting trees helps to offset the impact of burning fuels such as diesel.

But not so fast.

But former Act Party leader and Herald on Sunday columnist Rodney Hide said that would have to increase to about 5000 trees to make up for the fossil fuels burned in the rescue.

In any case, “expedition leader Chris Turney said more trees would be needed than earlier estimated but he was yet to work out how many.”